From Waste to Value: AI-Enabled Circular Systems for Sustainable Materials

IAS Residential Fellow Professor Anthony Halog delivers a seminar on their research -

This seminar explores how artificial intelligence, digital twins and systems thinking can help convert waste streams into high-value sustainable materials, including bioplastics. Drawing on collaborative research at Loughborough University, it will present an integrated framework that links process modelling with life cycle sustainability assessment to test environmental, economic and social trade-offs before real-world implementation. The seminar will examine how data-driven optimisation can improve feedstock selection, production efficiency, material performance and circularity while identifying rebound effects, uncertainty and scale-up barriers. Examples from food packaging and sustainable manufacturing will illustrate the opportunities and limitations of AI-enabled circular systems. Designed for an interdisciplinary audience, the presentation will conclude with a research agenda for connecting engineering, data science, business models and policy to accelerate responsible waste-to-value innovation and support net-zero industrial transitions.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.

IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register for the Teams webinar, as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.